Overcurrent Surge Behavior of HVDC Mercury-Arc Valves and Improvement of Their Consequential Arc-Back Performance

This paper outlines some of the physical phenomena that occur during overcurrent surges in mercury-arc converters, and discusses the relevance of these phenomena to the "consequential arc-back" performance of practical valves. Some experimental work on small-scale models reported has led to a better understanding of the effects of anode geometry on one form of consequential arc-back. Full-scale tests on valves incorporating a modified-anode geometry have confirmed the small-scale findings.